New Leafs and a Solo Expedition to Scrubgrass OHV Park in Templeton, PA

This past week was one of ups and downs. I posted on ClubFrontier about my plans to go up to Scrubgrass OHV in Templeton. In, PA over Labor Day weekend. I got real excited when another forum member suggested linking up that Friday for some riding about an hour away, camping, and then leaving Sunday for me to make the trek over to Scrubgrass. Those plans however evaporated just as suddenly as they manifested. I have my suspicions. In any event, it had me feeling down in that there are often good opportunities to go wheeling, but limited options for accompaniment.

The ups, in the end, overshadowed this disappointment. My Frontier Off Road Club East (F.O.R.C.E.) decals arrived that week. Then I got some decals from schools I traveled to whose bookstores were closed or didn't stock decals at the time of my visit. These were just small bumps on the happy meter. The big bump was that my 3-leaf, Add-a-pack from Automotive Customizers (4x4parts.com) arrived. The cancellation of the camping and wheeling Friday and Saturday meant I had those two days to get everything prepped and installed with the potential of still making it up to Scrubgrass.

I'll have to go back and edit my page from over a  year ago...I finally did "Finish up my OME Lift kit install". By finish up, I mean I needed to replace the stock U-bolts with the furnished U-bolts provided in the Old Man Emu kit. I hadn't done it because the rear spring assembly bracket openings needed to be reamed out to accommodate the thicker diameter of the bolts. Not wanting to damage the original equipment, I actually ordered two replacement brackets to be prepped beforehand so that I could make a direct swap. Well, I didn't get around to reaming them out until Friday. And Saturday turned into a marathon of an installation. My primary difficulty was in safely lifting and supporting the truck through the various phases. I'll do a build page/thread on it, but basically my Farmer's Jack (low budget Hi-Lift) started malfunctioning in that I could no longer safely lower a load by switching the selection lever to the down position. The lever would shift down, but you couldn't crank the load down in reverse of the lifting operation. Required several precarious 'kickouts'. Didn't like that all.

Anyway, short story is I got the springs on and decided, 'Safety be damned, I'm going to this park solo'. My wife didn't want to come for the 5 hour drive and no one with a truck was available or interested in traveling that far. I figured I'd go up there and take some very easy trails and just survey the scene, like an investigative journalist or maybe a travel consultant.

Here's how it went.

 This is about a mile past the main entrance, down the service road and to the left. A bit of a mud-bogging pit just outside of the secondary parking/camp area. There is another parking area at a higher elevation at the pay area. I have a few pictures of that towards the end of the film roll.

 I decided to take trail 20 after consulting with a few Jeep guys. I had originally asked if I could tail their group. They said they had an open seat. I replied that I had my own truck that I would be driving. They looked over at Veronica kind of incredulously and then said they would call the rest of their group. Now mind you, I don't know what the other guys were driving, but I'm pretty sure this was a Jeep Liberty. Not an incapable vehicle by any stretch, but definitely the kid brother of the Jeep family compared to say a Wrangler or Cherokee. I would not have Veronica looked down on. So after I dropped my second spare to the ground and stowed it in the back, I again approached them and said that I didn't want to hold their group up to wait for me (although the other guys hadn't made it yet) and asked where was a good place to start. So trail 20 is shown on the map to loop around an area of private property; however, when I got maybe a mile or two into it, there was a blockade stating that the trail itself was private property and that entrants would be prosecuted. And there was a vehicle about 200 yards past the sign with an occupant sitting there...waiting...lurking. Not wanting any part of a Deliverance scenario, I went to three point turn away.

 This is me after the three point turn and I paused for a second to consider my options. I had encountered a Full-sized Bronco driven by a man and his female companion. I had stopped to investigate a fork in the trail that was unmarked. Turns out it was an ATV trail. Not sure if I was given just a Vehicle map and maybe there's an ATV/Dirtbike map as well or not. Anyway, they passed me and waved as I was returning from my investigation and finishing airing down. I followed them at a distance of about 200 yards or so. They were the first to encounter the blockade and when we were side by side, the man cautioned, "You got to be careful on some of these trails; they get real real tight man." There was a trail that headed up hill just prior to the blockade. And it seemed intended for ATVs. But as I sat there, I thought, "Well, I'm not a FSB. And maybe I didn't drive 5 hours to just drive on dirt-pack roads and play it safe." So I parked here and ran a good ways up the hill to look for points to turn around if it got too narrow. And I got winded before I found any really good points. So I just went back down to the truck. It was kind of funny because I could barely maintain enough traction to amble down and here I was about to take the truck up there.

 So I made it about 1-1/2 miles or so on the trail before I had to turn back due to a very steep incline. The guys on dirtbikes that passed me warned that I probably wouldn't be able to go much further and suggested a turnaround point maybe 20 yards up. And that was the scene of my debacle.

 

 It doesn't look quite so bad on the video (which I'm having trouble loading), but I was definitely stuck and the more I tried to either go with the slide or steer away from it, the further over the bank I continued to inch. It was at the bottom of a slope which banked to the left and turned slightly back up grade. I wasn't going fast at all, which, ironically might have been the problem. The wheels weren't really spinning/rolling much at that low speed, and I think the weight of the truck on the descent caused the front tires to more so plow into the muck instead of pull/steer out and away.

So I got out my tow strap and wrapped it around a tree, spooled out some winch line, tied a red sweater to it in case an ATV rider came whizzing by (which nearly happened), and then retreated to the cab of the truck with the controller in hand. There were, by the way, a ton of ATV riders. The one guy and his son passed me twice while I was in the predicament. The second time I had the winch line set up and I gave the universal sign to slow down. He didn't. Then the universal sign for stop. No stoppage. I went to the second universal stop sign, slight reduction in speed, but no stoppage. I finally had to block the trail with my body. "Hey man, you see that?! I don't want you to get clotheslined or tangled up". "Oh  yeah, I see that."

Let's try this video. I didn't think to roll it until I was nearly done.

These will be placeholders for the videos.

 Made it out and decided to head to the parking area for a snack.

 Not that I wanted to see any more mud, but I was using the sparsely located trail markings to try to find my way to trail 18 for the Rock Garden. I was not planning on doing any serious rockcrawling, but from the abundance of competition rock crawlers I had seen, I figured this garden must be a beauty. I ran into several folks along the way after wrong turns who indicated that it was not my poor map-reading skills but a poorly-maintained map that was responsible for all of our woes. I had some fun trying to find the rock garden, but I ultimately turned around. The path to the rock garden takes one fairly down low in elevation through tight trails and switchbacks leading down near the water's edge. With the recent rainfall, the lower elevations were becoming increasingly saturated and mucky. I would have had a hard time climbing back out with my tires. The Nitto Terra Grapplers did have some very redeeming moments where I thought surely I would be not emerging from the woods. The guy in the side-by-side confirmed for me that another 300 yards or so from where he encountered me for the second time that day, there was a downed tree. To get by it, one would have to drive up and along a pretty muddy embankment. It was not to be my day to see the rock garden.

 On the way back, I did encounter some guys and gals doing some mud bogging in the mud pit I had passed (Trail 15) on the way to the Georgia's Rock Garden (18). I took more video there, but the uploader is giving me a hard time. I may have to add this to a youtube channel. They had old school Trackers and Sidekicks amongst their Jeeps and a hybrid rig that was a F250 chassis with a S10 body mounted to it. Not sure how one does this beyond magic. I really liked that he had winches mounted front and rear. That has been a thought of mine for some time. It was well-executed.

 People commented on how nice of a truck Veronica is and that they were surprised that anyone would bring it back there. The trails themselves weren't so rough. A lot of the wider trails seemed that they were designed with the ATV crowd in mind who seemed to only travel at one speed: wide open throttle. I generally just pulled to the side and gave them a wide berth. The more challenging terrain I encountered on the 3 or so trails I took were owing more so to the narrow width and the general wetness/muckiness of the path. In terms of ground clearance, most any stock 4x4 could get around the paths that I was on. They would, however, need to bring adequate recovery gear and it would be advisable to have another support vehicle accompany them. And in the event inclement weather occurred during or just prior to one's trip, M/T tires would be of appreciable benefit. On my way out, I was stopped by some newbies, two guys and a girl in a brand new Jeep wrangler limited edition. I am not sure why, but it was fitted with what appeared to be highway touring tires. They were asking me if I had seen other Wranglers, which I assured them I had. They explained they were by themselves and wondered if they could make the trails. I advised that they were in a very capable machine with more than enough ground clearance, but their limiting factor was going to be their tires. I'm not as familiar with Jeeps; so, I asked if their particular model was equipped with front and rear locking differentials (I believe the Rubicons are). They didn't know. I know we are all, at one point or another, "new" to something, but I was surprised that someone would buy a vehicle without any understanding of what features it possesses. Granted I don't always know the physics of exactly everything my truck does, but I know which ones I have and lack and how to engage the ones I have. I consulted my owner's manual frequently in the first year. Anyway, it surprised me. I told them I was by myself as well and had managed to have a good time and wished them the best.

 This was the most B.A. of the guys that were going in and out of the mud bog. Some sort of harness snapped on his last trip. I had some wire in my truck that I had brought in case I was denied entrance on the basis of arriving alone. I was just going to work on rewiring my offroad lights with solid wire, as I was dissatisfied with the stranded wire and the connections in my quick-connects. (And now it appears the quick connects I have grown fond of using have been discontinued. )

 This is a picture at the main parking area with some of the sponsored/logo vehicles. I don't think anyone drives them. I think they just get parked here.

 He obviously came from doing something B.A.

 I told this guy that I rarely see a well-built FJ (because they look goofy as all hell in stock form), but that I like to get pictures of the good examples I find. I didn't mention the goofy part.

 My usual picture of Veronica airing back up at the end of the day.

 I forgot to mention this little bit of trail carnage. After I extricated the truck, I needed to execute a pretty tight 85 point turn. Nailed the tail light on the 84th point. I heard the crunch and had just hoped for a crack. As I pulled forward and looked out the side view mirror, I saw pieces of red falling away. Fortunately, the bulb is intact. Gonna put some red tape over it and likely place an order with Jersey Parts. I always thought they were goofy looking, but seeing as how I've nailed this same corner twice now (first was in a parking garage), I might actually look into getting those cover/grilles that go over the tail lights. I kinda laughed it off and took some video. Not that it's funny...it's money every time I mess up. But if  you just want your truck to stay shiny, then you can't take it out to play. (Or learn to play a bit more carefully).

 I didn't really have any pictures of myself.

 This building is actually past the entrance. On the way out, I decided to pose Veronica near it so that you can see the sign in the background. If you see this sign, you have already driven by the double door gate that leads down to the parking area.

 This guy is right at the split between 422/28/66 routes. This is the Cadet Restaurant. Also in the area is a Sheetz that would be a good rally point, a Trader Horn (supplies perhaps, kind of a hardware store), Stiller Motorsports, and a Napa Auto and Truck parts. All are walking distance on one side or another of the highway.

 I asked where a nearby bar might be as guys like to have a pint or two after a day of wheeling. I don't do alcohol on the trail although I saw some who didn't share that same opinion on this day. SuperShooters Sports Bar was closed, (figured with it being Sunday). I didn't have any hope of finding another. The lady at the gas station had also said "Sierra" lounge was maybe 3 miles up. Her distances were off, because I'm pretty sure this was close to 10-12 miles up if not a bit further. But I stopped and had a Rolling Rock. Kind of a small place, but folks were polite.

 I just took a quick picture to remember this town. Reminded me of Somerset, PA.

 I thought this view of the windmills in the horizon was cool. Normally I'm in a position of looking up at them, but these were level if not below as I came over the crest of the road.

On Route 70 nearly equidistant between home and Baltimore.

 

Forgot to add a copy of the trail map for anyone that is interested. I made some annotations to guide my way.